Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Recently nominated as the first presidential science advisor with a seat in the cabinet, Eric Lander talks with Alan about his leading role of the Human Genome Project and how the insights it’s revealed into diseases as different as Covid-19 and cancer are leading to treatments, and even cures, that he never imagined possible. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simpl...

When we see a magic trick, is the magician fooling us, or are we fooling ourselves? Penn Jillette, the talking half of the magic team Penn and Teller, tells Alan how tricks are a test of how we process reality. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for adver...

We not only need to sleep, we need to dream, too. Robert Stickgold explains why we must go to the movies every night when we sleep – it’s to make sense of our waking world. And it’s all in his book When Brains Dream. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for...

They did their military service, not in Vietnam, but in the world's largest research hospital – and over the years their work has saved millions of lives. You’ve probably never heard this story, even though someday yours may be a life that is saved by the Soldiers of Science. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for i...

An in-depth preview of the upcoming eleventh season of Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two old friends who have played together on stage and on camera have a chat. And not only discover new things about each other’s approach to acting, but also share their joy of connecting on stage – and the role the audience plays in those moments of spontaneity that make a live performance magical. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. S...

A leading scientist who studies how genes make bodies, Cassandra Extavour almost became a musician and still sings professionally. She works with an extraordinary insect gene called oskar. Hundreds of millions of years ago oskar borrowed a fragment of a bacterial DNA that made sexual reproduction possible in the vast majority of animals– including you, me, and scientists who sing. Support the show...

The author of The Handmaid's Tale and its sequel, The Testaments, lets us in on her process of storytelling, involving both a “panoramic view ” and rolling revisions: “I’m more of a downhill skier – just get to the end and then you can go back and see where you screwed up along the way, count the trees you’ve hit.” Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an Ad...

In his new album, The Ever Fonky Lowdown, Wynton Marsalis offers a passionate musical take on what ails our democracy. His conversation with Alan also ranges over his early career, his dedication to education and why Louis Armstrong really was the greatest. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about ou...

In exploring the role that chance plays in our lives – and how to understand and control it – psychologist and author Maria Konnikova set out to learn how to play poker, a game she knew nothing about. She succeeded so well that she won hundreds of thousands of dollars on the professional poker circuit. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company...

As a 12-year-old, multiple Emmy winner Alan Zweibel decided that Rob in TV’s The Dick van Dyke show led the life he wanted to live. Since then he’s written for funny people from Borscht Belt comedians, to the cast of Saturday Night Live, to stars like Billy Crystal and Larry David. It’s all in his new book Laugh Lines. In a way, his life has been a history of modern comedy. Support the show: https...

She studies what may be the most disgusting molecule known to humankind. And that’s made Clara Sousa-Silva a key member of the team that may have detected life in the clouds of Venus. Her foul (and lethal) molecule has been discovered in those clouds – and the only current explanation for its presence is that it is being made by living organisms. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandv...

Having experienced 30 years of frustration since writing the first popular book setting out the facts of climate change, Bill McKibben is now hopeful that – maybe in the nick of time – there is enough momentum for action that the planet as we know it may be saved from destruction. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com...

It may not be what you think. With insights from studying unhappy students at Yale University, where she is a professor of psychology, Laurie Santos teaches Yale’s most popular class – and is now sharing those insights on how to be happier in her podcast, the Happiness Lab. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for inf...

John Lithgow talks with Alan about his new book of satirical verse and drawings – and the joys and challenges of writing satire at a time when events themselves can defy belief. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Six months after he first briefed Alan on the then novel coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci explains both why it turned out to be so unpredictable and dangerous and the gains science has made in understanding how to bring it under control. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use o...

Female mosquitoes need your blood to live and breed. So figuring out who among us attracts them and why can not only help in avoiding annoying bites but also help stop the spread of deadly diseases. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The celebrated and beloved actress on her successful mission to help schoolkids use their brains better. And how they become better students and more collaborative classmates. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Kavli and Nobel Prize Laureate on his groundbreaking work finding out how our bodies ship vital molecules to where they are needed — enabling profound advances in medicine. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What dogs and bonobos tell us about what has made humans survive and why we’d better not lose it. It’s not how fierce we are. On the contrary. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Kavli Prize Laureate on her research suggesting it may be possible to return aging and damaged brains to a state where they could learn as they did when young. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Reporting from the front lines of medical research with the with the skill of a storyteller while struggling to keep up with the outpouring of research on the coronavirus. “It’s like a firehose that we’re all trying desperately to drink out of.” Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection...

Up until now, we’ve been smarter than our tools. But that might change drastically sooner than we know. Isn’t it time to think about that? Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The two celebrated journalists explore the turbulent story, often forgotten, of women’s struggle to have the right to vote and what it means to us today. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We invite Pardis back to hear her account from the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus. She’s a leader in scientific breakthroughs aimed at stopping its insidious ability to spread undetected. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertisin...